RENO, Nev. — The Burning Man counterculture festival drew a peak crowd of nearly 66,000 celebrants as it neared an end Monday on the northern Nevada desert.

Gene Seidlitz of the federal Bureau of Land Management says the official peak attendance of 65,922 set on Friday was within the population cap of 68,000 imposed by his agency on the quirky art and music festival.

The number was down from last year's record peak crowd of 69,613, which exceeded the limit of 68,000 and resulted in organizers being placed on probation for a second time in three years for violating the BLM's cap.

Overall, Seidlitz says, this year's weeklong festival was successful and safe except for Thursday's death of a 29-year-old Wyoming woman who was struck by a bus carrying passengers.